Bills Digest no. 15 2006–07

Indigenous Education (Targeted Assistance) Amendment
Bill2006

WARNING:
This Digest was prepared for debate. It reflects the legislation as
introduced and does not canvass subsequent amendments. This Digest
does not have any official legal status. Other sources should be
consulted to determine the subsequent official status of the
Bill.

Passage History

The purpose of the Indigenous
Education (Targeted Assistance) Amendment Bill 2006 (the Bill) is
to amend the Indigenous Education (Targeted Assistance) Act
2000 (the current Act) to appropriate an additional $43.6
million from 2006 to 2008 to:

The current Act provides quadrennium funding for the years 2005
2008, primarily for the Indigenous Education Strategic Initiatives
Programme (IESIP) to assist Indigenous students in government and
non-government schools, including small independent Indigenous
schools. Funding may go to all education sectors from pre-school to
tertiary. It includes Away From Base funding for ABSTUDY students
attending compulsory course activities and funding for special
projects. Funding is provided through agreements made with
education providers.

In November 2004 amendments to the current Act brought the
Indigenous Education Direct Assistance (IEDA) programme, including
the Indigenous Tutorial Assistance Scheme (ITAS), under the current
Act to ensure program funding for the quadrennium and align the
IEDA program with calendar rather than financial
years.(1)

The Bill appropriates an additional $25.7 million to extend ITAS
to Year 9 students ($14.5 million) and to vocational education
and training students ($11.2 million).

ITAS, formerly the Aboriginal Tutorial Assistance Scheme, has
operated since 1990 providing individual and in-school tuition of
up to five hours a week for school and post-secondary students.
Since the IEDA review in 2004 the Government has emphasised
in-class tuition for students not meeting the Year 3, 5 and 7
literacy and numeracy benchmarks, and individual and small group
tuition for Years 10, 11 and 12 students.

In the 2006 07 Budget the Minister for Families, Community
Services and Indigenous Affairs announced funding of $15.6 million
over three years to December 2008 to extend tuition, currently
available to Years 10, 11 and 12 Indigenous students, to Year 9
students.(2) The Bill appropriates $14.5 million. The
$1.1 million discrepancy between the Budget announcement and the
appropriated amount is not explained.

In 2003 the grade progression ratio of Indigenous students from
Year 9 to Year 10 was 89.2 per cent compared to 99.0 per cent for
non-Indigenous students.(3) Improving this transition
point at the end of compulsory schooling has been identified as a
contributing factor to achieving increased Year 12 retention rates.
The Department of Education, Science and Training (DEST) expects
the initiative to assist 4800 Year 9 students, 50 per cent of whom
are enrolled in remote areas or remote schools and 10 per cent in
non-remote schools, from 2007 to 2008. Students would receive four
hours tuition per week for 35 weeks.(4) The
Indigenous Education Programmes Provider Guidelines20052008 describe in detail how the current Act
is to be implemented. The Guidelines state: Assistance is based on
an assessment of students need for tuition and the availability of
funding. Students in remote locations will be given priority
.(5)

In the 2006 07 Budget the Minister for Families, Community
Services and Indigenous Affairs announced funding of $21.8 million
over four years (to 30 June 2010) to extend ITAS to VET students
studying at Certificate Level III and higher.(6)
Previously ITAS was not available to VET students. The second
reading speech states that $11.2 million will be appropriated until
December 2008. The Minister for Education, Science and Training
estimates 20 000 Indigenous VET students undertaking courses
leading to a Certificate Level III qualification, or above, will
benefit from access to tutorial assistance for up to two hours per
week.(7)

More than 58 000 Indigenous students undertook some
publicly funded vocational education and training in 2003. This
training took place in a wide range of environments including TAFE
colleges, schools, with a private provider or in an
Indigenous-specific environment. However Indigenous students are
under-represented in courses at the Certificate III and IV levels
and Diploma and higher levels, courses that if successfully
completed significantly increase the employment prospects for
Indigenous Australians.(8) Furthermore Indigenous
students are under-represented in course completions. In 2003
Indigenous students comprised 3.4 per cent of VET students but
course completions by Indigenous students made up only 2.5 per cent
of the AQF level course completions.(9) Extending
tutorial assistance to VET students should assist in improving
Indigenous completion rates.

In the 2006 07 Budget the Minister for Families, Community
Services and Indigenous Affairs announced $19.6 million over four
years to 30 June 2010 to fund school-based sporting
academies.(10) The Bill appropriates $9.1 million to
December 2008. The initiative is based on the successful model of
the Clontarf Football
Academy which was established on-site at the Clontarf
Aboriginal College in January 2000. It has since expanded to five
other West Australian schools. Participation in the sporting
academy is based on attendance and meeting educational outcomes.
Average attendance by Clontarf Football Academy students is around
78 per cent, retention rates around 82 per cent and about 83 per
cent of graduates proceed to full-time work. DEST expects that
there will be twenty similar academies in place by the end of 2008.
It is expected that, like Clontarf, funding will come from a mix of
Commonwealth, State, corporation and philanthropic
sources.(11)

Community festivals for health promotion is a 2006 07 Budget
education measure. The Government will provide a total of $16.1
million over four years to sponsor festivals such as Croc Festivals
for Indigenous and non-Indigenous students in remote areas and the
Rock Eisteddfods for high school students.(12) The Bill
appropriates $7.3 million for Croc Festivals for 2006 2008.

Croc
Festivals began in 1998 when the former Queensland Minister for
Health, Mike Horan, asked the producers of the Rock Eisteddfod
Challenge to find a way of involving young people from Cape York
and the Torres Strait Islands in the event. Croc Festivals aim to
encourage school attendance and promote healthy lifestyles without
substance abuse. Commonwealth Government sponsorship of Croc
Festivals commenced in 2000 and Commonwealth Government funding for
the six years to 2005 has totalled
$11.9 million.(13) Croc Festivals have been funded
from the health portfolio with additional funding from other
government grants such as the Alcohol Education and Rehabilitation
Foundation ($600,000), National Crime Prevention Program
($382,000), Department of Immigration and Multicultural and
Indigenous Affairs grants ($124,000, 2002 2006), Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander Services (ATSIS) ($84,000 in 2003 2004) and
the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 ($105,000 in
2005).(14)

In the 2006 07 Budget the Minister for Education, Science and
Training announced that from 2007 DEST will be the lead agency
responsible for community festivals for Indigenous young
people.(15) DEST expects to spend around $3 million or
thereabouts as a contribution toward conducting Indigenous youth
festivals and probably around $700,000 a year as a contribution
toward other initiatives .(16) Funding will now be
appropriated by the current Act rather than from the previous
diverse range of grants.

Items 1 to 3 update the appropriations for each
calendar year in Schedule 1 of the current Act to increase net
quadrennium funding by $43.6 million.

Concluding comments

The Bill continues the Government s emphasis on providing a
greater weighting of resources towards Indigenous students in
remote areas. The Government regards these Indigenous students to
be at greatest disadvantage. The initiatives further implement the
Government s policy aimed at improving school attendance and
retention rates, particularly in remote communities, and closing
the gaps between Indigenous and non-Indigenous
students.(17)

Debate on Indigenous education should recognize the important
context of Indigenous demographics. Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander peoples are a young population with a median age of 20.5
years, 39 per cent of whom are under 15 years, compared to 20 per
cent for the non-Indigenous population.(18) Although the
Bill extends funding for ITAS, this funding is capped. Considering
the significant growth in the Indigenous school-age population this
could result in a shortfall of tuition places a conclusion
supported by the 2004 IEDA review in which DEST staff noted that
the IEDA program had not received any major increases in funding,
other than annual indexation, since its establishment in
1991.(19)

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